Chapter Three: Pureblood Comrades

I hardly got any sleep that night. I was so nervous about the day to come and the whole ruining my family’s legacy problem, that I didn’t really touch my breakfast. Nathan sat down in the wicker chair beside me and stole the rest of my cold sausage links.

“I’m surprised you got in Squib, I thought they only let gifted students into Hogwarts.” he said while chomping on a biscuit.

“Heheheh….” I said sarcastically rolling my eyes.

I put my syrup covered plate in the sink and headed back to my room. I had about an hour left to waste before we left to King’s Cross Station. I wondered who I would sit with on the train, obviously Ernie, but who else? Oh god, I hope he doesn’t sit with Hannah and Cedric...they’re insufferable. The next thing I knew, it was time to go. As the last trunk was thrown in the back of the ‘car’, I said my last goodbyes to my home, and we headed towards the train station.

It took around 30 minutes to get to King’s Cross; it would have taken 10 if my mother actually knew how to work a car. As we arrived I noticed there was a great heap of muggles walking around. Such oblivious creatures these muggles. I’m sure if somebody opened a howler in here, none of them would even notice. After backtracking a little bit, we finally found gate 9 ¾. My mom made me go first through the portal; said it was some sort of (outlandish) family tradition. My dad had to get back to St. Mungo’s, and my mom had to drive him. So I said my last goodbyes to them and took a running start towards the portal.

“Be sure to mail us when you get sorted into Hufflepuff sweety!” yelled my mom.

“Ah…ye…”

Right then, before I could get through the wall, Nathan decided it would be cute to stick his foot in front of mine and trip me. I skidded through the gate into Lee Jordan, a third year boy with dread locks. He looked quite irritated and didn’t bother to help me up. I heard him mumble something about hating 1st years, but then turned away. I quickly got up before Nathan could come through and embarrass me a second time. As I brushed myself off and picked up Oliver, I saw Ernie and Addeline standing with their parents. I walked towards them and was greeted with a warm hug from Mrs. MacMillan and a “How-da-ya-do” from Uncle Drew. The train’s whistle blew indicating that it was time to board the platform. Ernie and Addeline said their last goodbyes to their parents and we went aboard the train.

Nearly all of the seats were taken. We walked past four more cabins until we heard Ernie’s name being yelled.

“Ernie!! Come on mate, come sit with us!”

Cedric Diggory and Hannah Abbott were sitting in the cabin with a few other aspiring Hufflepuffs to our right.

“We saved you the last seat, c’mon!” shouted Hannah.

No consideration these people, they act as though he’s not already with two other friends. He turned towards me and I gave him a ‘go ahead, it’s alright’ smile. He was warmly welcomed by the rest of his friends and Addeline nudged me to keep walking.

“Hey, my friend Pansy said she’d save me a seat, and her other friend Jacob never got on board, so you can sit with us.”

I was quite comforted by this thought. We walked through the isle a little more and I saw that Harry kid sitting with a ginger boy. I stopped to give him a nasty glare, but he didn’t notice. We walked past a few more isles until Addeline saw her friend.

“Addeline! How was your summer?! Ah…and who is your friend?” Pansy asked giving me a judgmental look.

“It was pretty good thanks. Oh this is my new friend Taylor, is it alright if he sits in Jacob’s seat? Why didn’t he come anyway?” Addeline asked her.

“Oh, he found out the day before that his family wasn’t purebloods like us and was too embarrassed to even leave his house...You’re not a mudblood…are you Taylor?” She asked me suspiciously.

“Nope, absolutely not, my family is completely pure.” I said immediately.

I needed friends...

“Well wonderful! Of course he can sit with us!” She replied.

Pansy was pale, with dark brown short hair, had a high pitched voice and wore a Slytherin pendant on the robe she was wearing.

“Who’s sitting there?” Addeline asked pointing at the seats across from us.

“Oh, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle.”

They must have all been friends by the way Addeline smiled. As the two girls talked about their summers, I heard a croak. I looked down at my feet and there was a sickly looking toad. Pansy screamed and stood up on her seat. I picked it up and for some dumb reason tried looking for a collar on it. At that moment, a boy with platinum blonde hair came in with two larger boys behind him. He gave me a disgusted look and snarled

“What…is that fowl creature doing in here?” I wondered the same thing and replied,

“I have no idea, it just hopped in here. I think someone lost their pet.”

He laughed and took it from me. I didn’t really care that he snatched it, I’m used to it from Nathan. After a minute of examining it, he realized

“This toad is Longbottom’s…He’s not getting it back, not on my watch.”

Addeline smiled at the blonde boy and said,

“Oh sorry, this is my friend Taylor, Valentino right? Yeah.”

He took a moment to look at me, scanning me with his eyes for imperfections, something that could make him hate me. He couldn’t really find anything; there wasn’t a stain on my robes, not a hair out of place, and no scent of impurity. Finally he smiled and said

“Hello Taylor, I’m Draco Malfoy,” he motioned to his left, “this is Crabbe,” then he motioned to his right, “and this is Goyle. You’re lucky, not many people are able to sit with such magical potential. What house are you planning to ge...?”

I started to panic on the inside, if I say Hufflepuff I’m sure they’ll kick me out of their group...

Suddenly the door to the carriage opened. Malfoy quickly through his duffle bag over the toad in his lap. A frizzy haired awkward girl stuck her head in and asked us,

“Hello. A boy named Neville has lost his toad Trevor. Have any of you seen it?”

She was really snobby for someone who looked as she did. Everyone shook their heads no, so I just went along with it. She rolled her eyes and walked away. The entire carriage filled with laughter.

“Did you see her face Draco?! God I can’t stand her! I’m pretty sure the toad even croaked and she didn’t hear it! The sound must have been muffled by all that hair.”

Pansy was hysterical about her. I didn’t really think she was THAT bad, until the entire cart started talking about her.

“I heard her parents work on muggles TEETH!” “I heard she’s the only witch in her entire family!” “I just want to beat the frizz out of her hair..”

The last comment though was more shocking for me, I didn’t expect Addeline to say that about someone she hardly knew, but then again I didn’t know her very well..yet.